Serious incident to the Douglas DC3 registered F-AZTE on 09/07/2022 at Meaux

For several years prior to this serious incident, the captain's declining medical fitness had made it urgent for him to ensure his replacement within the association, France DC3. While he had shown himself determined to overcome the increasing difficulties in obtaining a medical fitness certificate, he had put off several association pilots with the DC3 rating who could have succeeded him
as captain.

A neuropsychological examination had revealed impaired visual analysis capabilities. However, the significance of this finding had been obscured by the captain having demonstrated high cognitive abilities. Undertaking the flight of the serious incident with limited recent experience and in an atmosphere he perceived as stressful, with, in particular, significant disagreements with the co-pilot, the captain's behaviour was dominated by his emotions. These high emotions impaired his reasoning and decision-making, and hindered his ability to compensate for his cognitive weaknesses. It was therefore difficult for him to compensate for his visuospatial impairments and fully exercise his prerogatives as captain within the crew.

In accordance with the program, the captain took the controls upon separation from the formation while in a heightened emotional state due to frustrations accumulated before and during the flight. The aeroplane was at this point in a left-hand turn and at a low height, so the captain's mental workload immediately became high, a stark contrast to his previous cognitive activity. In this context, he was unable to identify the runway on his left-hand side, probably due to the combination of his emotional state and the visual analysis deficit highlighted during the neuropsychological assessment in November 2021. After stabilizing the flight path, he banked left while climbing to orient himself. The airspeed decreased as the aeroplane climbed and the bank angle increased. The co-pilot, aware of the decreasing airspeed, informed the captain of this, but he did not react. The bank angle increased, and the aeroplane entered a stall. The co-pilot then pushed forward on the stick with both hands to counteract the roll. The captain also made a nose-down input and applied power. The crew regained control of the aeroplane, and the captain carried out the landing.